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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TO MICHAL: SONNETS AFTER MARRIAGE: 8. AFTER RONSARD, by         Recitation             Poet's Biography
First Line: When you are old, and I-if that should be
Last Line: "when I was happy, beautiful, and young."
Subject(s): Marriage; Old Age; Weddings; Husbands; Wives


WHEN you are old, and I -- if that should be --
Lying afar in undistinguished earth,
And you no more have all your will of me,
To teach me morals, idleness, and mirth,
But, curtained from the bleak December nights,
You sit beside the else-deserted fire
And 'neath the glow of double-polèd lights,
Till your alert eyes and quick judgement tire,
Turn some new poet's page, and to yourself
Praise his new satisfaction of new need,
Then pause and look a little toward the shelf
Where my books stand which none but you shall read:
And say: "I too was not ungently sung
When I was happy, beautiful, and young."




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